Posts Tagged ‘Trade Shows’

02.14
2012

By Felicia Wyrick

Adfinity Announcements

Not to worry

Process Expo Lands #1 Ranking!

From the beginning of my marketing career, I’ve always said that THE ONE product that I never wanted to promote was a trade show.

The economy could be in the tank. Our dates could compete with another industry event. The weather might suck. So many factors out of our control can make or break the show’s success.

Remember that nagging advice you were given early in your career –never say never? Well, I had to eat my words and dive right into marketing a trade show when Adfinity was given the tremendous opportunity to help the Food Processing Suppliers Association drive attendance to PROCESS EXPO 2011.

I was frightened and excited at the same time. We could come up with a comprehensive strategy, killer creative, sign up industry-leading exhibitors, offer cutting-edge educational sessions, let people in for free and the event could still bomb.

Yep, you guessed it. The economy was in the tank. Our show was just weeks after our main competitors’ event and the weather in Chicago was, well, weather in Chicago in November. Plus, this was the first time the association had managed the show solo and competing shows got into a major marketing slug fest with us.

But we also had a lot of great things going for us. The FPSA staff proved to be one of the most hardworking and dedicated client teams we’ve ever worked with. Leading food equipment manufacturers signed up early and signed up big. Our media partners stepped up to the plate and helped us heavily blanket all media with our message.

So we forged ahead and tried to keep the panic level in check. Opening day arrived. Exhibitors were in place, booth staff in their matching polo’s. Security stood ready to dutifully scan badges and thwart covert infiltration of non-registered attendees. Bagpipers played to celebrate this much anticipated day. And . . .

By God, people came!

PROCESS EXPO was named the #1 fastest growing trade show in 2011 by Expo Magazine!! Attendance nearly doubled to 12,732. Sponsor revenue growth rate was off the charts—at 576.43 percent. And exhibitor revenue growth rate surged 153.31 percent.

WHEW! Now I can take trade show marketing off the list of things that scare me. Guess I’ll move on to sky diving.

Topics: ,

1 Comment »

05.28
2010

By Betsy Caszatt

Adfinity Advice

Great publicity lives forever

Guinness reports the most live cockroaches ever eaten in one minute was 36 – London, March 5, 2001.

Those Brits know how to stage an event. This insect-o-rama followed an earlier 47 rats-down-the-trousers trick that made Ken Edwards (Photo credit: Guinness World Records) an overnight celebrity. This begs the question: which direction is he moving on the eligible bachelor scale?

In B2B marketing – you’ll be relieved to know – publicity and press relations are rather more strategic in nature … and easier to swallow. Aren’t trade shows a natural forum for this kind of “intercept marketing”? Prospects are at an event within their sphere of interest and already primed for your message. Whether you stop them with a skill challenge (and who doesn’t like to show off their prowess?), or even take a page from Nathan’s Hot Dogs and hold an all-you-can-eat contest with your food brand or food your equipment processes – you’ve intercepted their attention. Invite them to register for a drawing and you’ve got a name and address. With a little outrageousness, you’ll intercept the trade press too.

Just be careful. Bad promotion – like the cockroach or the aftermath of setting the record for eating 6 lbs of SPAM in 10 minutes – might never die either.

Topics: , ,

Comments Off

03.29
2010

By Betsy Caszatt

Adfinity Advice

Food industry factoid

“It was not so very long ago that people thought microchips were very, very small snack foods.”

Geraldine Ferraro

Could have happened. New products don’t appear on the scene with full-blown, instant recognition. Do you think the first samplers of Rocky Mountain oysters knew they weren’t getting seafood?

There’s that ramp-up period before a new product gains traction or before people get what this great thing is you’re offering them – and why they should want it. We’re always open for business-to-business conversations on how to help prospects understand what you make or sell. It could be a killer ad series, electronic blasts, PR, some trade show hoopla or something intriguing in the mail. We need to talk.

Be honest, there was a brief moment in time when we all thought blackberries were something picked up at the farmer’s market. Things can change, huh?

Topics: , , ,

Comments Off

03.03
2010

By Alan Harrington

Adfinity Advice

Balanced Marketing Diet Essential for Brand Health

If the saying, “Man cannot live by bread alone” were adapted to comment on an effective business-to-business (B2B) marketing plan it might read, “A business cannot succeed on one marketing tactic alone.”  Just as a well-balanced diet is important to the health our bodies, a well-balanced marketing plan is essential for (more…)

Topics: , , , , ,

Comments Off

02.17
2010

By Felicia Wyrick

Adfinity Advice

Is your trade show strategy gellin’?

Your sales and marketing staff probably think working a trade show is a long, exhausting ordeal.  How would they feel about working a booth for 6 months?  The Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, considered to be the first trade show promoting products of the Industrial Revolution, ran from May to October, occupied 991,857 square feet of exhibit space showing over (more…)

Topics: , ,

Comments Off